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25.08.2016 General News

KATH Awaits New Oxygen Plant From MOH

By Ghanaian Chronicle
KATH Awaits New Oxygen Plant From MOH
25.08.2016 LISTEN

From Issah Alhassan, Kumasi
THE MANAGEMENT of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) says it is still awaiting the promise from the Ministry of Health (MOH) to install new oxygen plant for the hospital.

The KATH management has been compelled under the circumstances to depend on supply of oxygen from outside, as the hospital’s own plant has become obsolete and cannot supply the needed capacity.

The hospital has on several occasions made an appeal to the Health Ministry for the installation of a new oxygen plant to boost local production, but is yet to see any positive result, despite assurances from government.

But speaking at the opening of the hospital’s mid-year Performance Review Workshop, the CEO of KATH, Dr. Joseph Akpaloo, said management was still expectant of the promise, emphasizing that the installation of a new oxygen plant will go a long way to improve efficiency and enhance quality delivery of healthcare in the facility.

Dr. Akpaloo also pointed out that the hospital is confronted with other challenges such as delayed reimbursement of NHIS claims, obsolete equipment and inadequate infrastructure amongst other challenges, which he said were against effective delivery of service.

The CEO of KATH, however, said despite these daunting setbacks, the hospital had chalked remarkable successes in various sectors of its operations during the year under review, stressing that several progress had been made, compared to last year.

He said the hospital recorded 131,326 Specialist out Patient Attendance (OPD) cases, an increase of 4.50 percent over the 2015 midyear figure of 125,670 while surgical Operations increased from 8,488 in 2015 to 9,729 in 2016 representing an increase of 14.62 percent.

He further pointed out that maternal mortality rate at the hospital saw a significant reduction from 1077.80 per 100,000 live births in 2015 to 791.38 per 100,000 live births during the first half of 2016, adding that the positive achievement was as a result of the outreach programme carried out at the peripheral hospitals in the region and beyond by their senior specialists and consultants from the obstetrics and gynecology and Child Health Directorates.

In terms of expenditure, Dr. Akpaloo disclosed that the hospital spent GHC1, 000,000 from its internally Generated Funds to procure equipment to help improve patient care at the hospital, stating that amongst the equipment procured by the hospital were three state of the arts anesthetic machines valued at GHC285, 000 and new air compressor dryers at the cost of GHC139, 000 to improve the quality of oxygen produced at the hospital.

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The CEO of KATH however charged management and staff of the hospital to continue to adopt innovative and efficient means of operation in order to make judicious use of the limited resources available at their disposal.

“I urge all units and management teams to think outside the box in order to mobilize extra resources for improved clinical care as the hospital found it difficult to meet all the financial and logistical obligations of the hospital from internal and state resources,” he noted.

The mid-year Performance Review was meant to take stock of the operations of all units in the hospital and to appraise their performance in the first half of the year 2016.

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